Posts by Spencer

Yesterday I had the strangest thing happen to me.  As I was driving along in bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic, my car horn started sporadically beeping!  I immediately sprang into action thinking of ways to get it to stop…or at the very least, just get it home! This little experience got me thinking; my car is about…

One of the biggest pitfalls to avoid with any software selection and implementation project is Scope Creep – the gradual broadening of the original objectives. As you move through the selection process, you will be exposed to many new and exciting capabilities. While it is tempting to add this functionality to the project – stick to the plan. During implementation…

We are working with a client that is going through an ERP software evaluation. While they are looking at moving to a new ERP solution, they are also considering an upgrade to the latest version of their current solution. As such, they not only conducted a scripted software demo of the potential new solutions, but also asked…

As we mention in a previous post, software cost can be broken out into 3 components (Software License, Software Maintenance, and Implementation Services) If you are looking to implement a SaaS or Cloud solution then you will also have a Service Level Agreement (SLA). For this post we are going to focus on the Software Maintenance cost.…

Come see us at the California Municipal Finance Officers conference in Palm Springs February 19-20 in Booth #119. We are looking forward to catching up with all of our municipal/government California clients next week!

Here are a few key things to keep in mind as you move through the software demo process. 1)    Use a Demo Script so that the software vendor will show how they solve your business needs and not just their bells and whistles. 2)    Hold your pre-demo meeting with the vendor and spend some time talking about the logistics…

One of the biggest questions we get is – “How much will the software cost?” There are actually 3 components to software pricing – Software License/Annual Fees, Software Implementation, and Annual Maintenance or Fees (for a Cloud solution). This post will focus on Software License/Annual Fees – which is the up front license cost for…

When we do software selection work for our clients, we typically start with a Long List of software solutions and then use the requirements document to eliminate vendors to get to a qualified Short List of approximately 3 vendors. This process of elimination sometimes yields interesting results. While the name brand software vendors are typically well represented,…

Remember when you could walk into the supermarket and choose from about 10 flavors of ice cream in the freezer case?  Yesterday, I took my kids to pick out a summer treat and was met with about 200 flavor combinations and presentations – on a stick, in a cup, waffle bowls, ½ the fat, slow…

I was reminded recently of the importance of making sure that you qualify the vendor references prior to making reference calls or on-site visits. Our office manager was selecting a replacement copier for our office and learned about the importance of this firsthand. She realized when she had completed her reference check visit that the vendor had not taken the time…